As part of preparations for CHAN 2016 that will be hosted in Rwanda from January 16-February 7, the national football team will face South Africa U-23 side on July 28 in Johannesburg. The locally based players started residential training on Monday morning at the Amahoro Stadium in Kigali without up to 11 APR players who are currently playing at the CECAFA Kagame Cup in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Against the Amaglug-glug, the Rwanda CHAN team will be up against a side that is preparing to take on Zimbabwe in the return leg of the CAF U-23 Championship qualifier on the weekend of July 31-August 2 following a 1-1 draw in Harare on Sunday. Initially, this friendly encounter was meant to be between the Rwanda and South Africa U-23 sides on March 25 with both teams using the game as preparation for the 2015 CAF U-23 Championship qualifiers that started in April but the match was postponed to July 25. However, when the Rwandan side was eliminated from the Rio 2016 Olympic qualifiers by Uganda in May on a 4-1 aggregate, Amavubi head coach Johnny McKinstry decided to include the game on the CHAN preparation friendly list. Since Rwanda as host country is not playing in the qualifiers, several friendly matches have been lined up to test the Amavubi CHAN squad including another one against the Nigeria U-23 side on July 25 in Kigali before they travel to South Africa. The ‘Dream Team’ as the Nigeria U-23 side is commonly known, won the first leg of their CAF U-23 qualifier against Congo Brazzaville 2-1 on Sunday in Port Harcourt and will be hoping to use the friendly against the Amavubi CHAN team as preparation for the return leg.
